School of Engineering

Location:  Lincoln
Salary:   From £33,797 per annum
Please note this post is fixed term until 31/07/2021 and full-time 1.0 FTE
Closing Date:   Sunday 22 September 2019
Interview Date:   Tuesday 15 October 2019

The University of Lincoln is recruiting a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to join an exciting CERES funded project to develop a new biomaterial product created from industrial co-products such as mushroom waste. These materials have an expected application in biodegradable food packaging. The role offers the opportunity to engage in an academic/commercial collaboration within an ambitious team, to work with novel materials, in terms of both processing and characterisation and to benefit from excellent support to produce and disseminate original research contributions at leading international conferences and in journals. 

The Research Fellow is expected to have relevant experience and/or a keen interest in a number of research areas related to the development of a new food grade compostable packaging material made from food co-products such as mushroom waste. 

These areas include:

• Invention and development of methods, techniques and approaches to prepare functionalized materials in forms suitable for incorporation into industrial manufacturing processes.
• Quantifying material functionality by measuring mechanical and physical properties
• Assessment of suitability of use for food-contact products through indicative assessment of microbiological and chemical stability of final products and conformance of materials to EN 13432
• Optimising the performance of the materials in additional necessary processes such as top-sealing processes. 
• Assessments with industrial partners of the potential for incorporating the materials into full-scale production.

The post holder may be required to help supervise the work of junior researchers.